Monday, September 13, 2010

Bacarri Rambo had a game-high 12 tackles against South Carolina on Saturday.

And the Georgia safety can’t stop beating himself up.

Rambo was very hard on himself Monday, criticizing his own effort in Saturday’s 17-6 loss.

“I was loafing a lot,” the sophomore said. “I’ve just gotta do better, because I’ve got a lot of guys looking at me as a leader. I’ve gotta fix myself with that.”

Rambo didn’t stop there.

“From now on I’m going all-out,” Rambo said. “I’ve gotta give it all I got. I feel like I was holding something back. I left a lot of what I had in the locker room instead of taking it out there with me.”

The big topic in defensive meetings the past 48 hours has been tackling, or lack thereof. There were different theories: Rambo said the team wasn’t swarming, while senior LB Akeem Dent said the team wasn’t wrapping up.

It’s a good guess it was a mixture of both. Either, despite being credited with seven solo tackles, Rambo was pinning the blame on the man in the mirror.

“It was just one of those days, I guess. I’m gonna try my days not to have another day like that,” Rambo said. “Every dog has their day, I guess Saturday was my day. I just can’t let that happen to me again, because it cost us the game.”

I wish we'd see that level of "lesson learned" from some of the other players - I think Ealey said the exact same thing about his fumble that he said after Kentucky. I understand that it just happens sometimes, but I haven't seen him put any of it on himself personally, it's been more like, "yeah WE need to do better.."

I was at the game and felt like i heard Rambo and gamble's name after every play for a tackle, but if your safety is making all the tackles then something is wrong. Our defensive line has to step up and be the first one to hit the running back and drive him backwards. I hope we get things together before saturday because its gonna be a very long season if we lose back to back games. Im not even gonna get started on the offense or lack there of. That really pisses me off!!!!

I just wanna know one thing why mike bobo or who evers been callin the plays so obcessed with runnin the ball straight up the middle. weve had very little success with that in years. our backs are fast enough and make better progress to the outsides. murry done a great job at passing also hope to see more pass plays

Thanks Anon. Rambo gets standing ovations and the respect of fans when he plays well.

Fans just shell out money and time to follow a team and a product that they've invested quite a bit in emotionally.

Personally, I don't care that Rambo would destroy me if I emerged from the wrong alley and crossed him. What I do care about is that the players who reap the rewards in playing time make the most of it. For all their teammates riding on the bench, alumni on the field, and fans in the stands, the expectation is that they leave everything they have out on the field. If Rambo is incapable of that, then there's a backup somewhere that is capable.

Rambo hasn't become the man (?) he replaced in Bryan Evans, but he had better start taking his role much more seriously.

Bizzaroneck- You can't make assumptions after one game and say that he doesn't hit hard! We saw him hit hard all last year and don't say you weren't one of them saying he should be a starter in the game! The kid had a bad game (although he still had a game high 12 tackles). Think before you make such comments. Yes, I was shocked after last weeks play- he looked lost out there, but there is no reason to say he doesn't hit hard.

I was one of the 90,000 + in the stands chanting his name after this hit-

I appreciate this type of attitude from Rambo and not pointing the finger at other people. However, I want to see action. I want to hear after we hit Arkansas in the mouth all day long, "This is what we should have done against South Carolina and what we WILL do the rest of the year." Enough with the excuses and telling the media what we want to hear after we get the ball run down our throat. It's time to play fundamental football. Stop diving at guys' feet, wrap up the guy carrying the ball, and break on the ball in the air like Boykin did in the first game. I wish somebody would call out Jakar Hamilton because for all his preseason hype he didn't impress me anymore than Bryan Evans, and that is a very sad thing for me to have to say.

Nick Williams plays FS, not SS. There's quite a difference there FYI...But when teams are running the ball, an ex-Linebacker at safety seems like a good idea. Replace the so called "Hitman" with Williams.

It is amazing to me that our fans??? have decided that Rambo is the reason the D was so bad against the run. He made 12 tackles. He was constantly having to clean up the front 7's misses but who do the fans single out to criticize by name but Rambo. Any fan that singles out a player for personal criticism is pond scum. Our fans have memories that are so short that the player they accuse of not hitting is the one that suffered a concussion saving our game against Auburn last year but in typical UGA fashion it's what have you done for me last game.

It's time the fans grew up and realize that it a damn game played by 18-22 year olds and if you do not want to watch the game don't. If a player that is being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars screws up call him out but keep the personal attacks on college kids to yourself.

"to bad after the game on saturday rambo was seen downtown athens living it up. sounds good on paper but how about they really do it in real life."

Who the heck does Rambo think he is living his life?! Doesn't he know we have way more on the line in these games than he does? He should have not allowed himself any fun on Saturday night. Maybe paid someone to flog him for each play taken off. Better yet, he should have forced himself to watch Dane Cook standup all night.

nick williams is listed at 6'2''/ 215. I guarantee he is not a free safety. add a couple of pounds and he has the body to play linebacker (which he has several times throughout his career at UGA) the kid is a head hunter who just needs some playing time to prove it.

I like to see him stepping up, not making excuses and flat out saying he has to play better. Accepting responsibility is huge. You can't improve if you don't realize that you are doing something wrong. Best of luck to him and the rest of the Dawgs!

Surprised that everyone is all over Rambo, Dent seems like more part of the problem than him. His tweets after the game are very reminiscent of Joe Cox's early season comments. A very entitled "you can't judge us since you aren't us" stance.

I'm hoping this season works out better than last but Dent's attitude is a boat anchor.

I don’t recall any players coming out after a bad game and taking responsibility for a loss during the Willie Martinez regime. It could be that I’m misremembering. I admit that I have repressed a lot of memories from those years that will surely come back to haunt me at the most inopportune moments.

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About the Author

Seth Emerson has been covering the SEC and Georgia (on and off) since 2002. He worked at the Albany Herald from 2002-05, then spent five years at The State in Columbia, S.C., covering South Carolina. He returned to Athens in August of 2010, only to find that David Pollack and David Greene were no longer playing for the Bulldogs. Adjustments were made.

Emerson is originally from Silver Spring, Md., and graduated from Maryland in 1998 with a degree in journalism and a minor in getting lost on the way to practically everywhere. Then he spent four years at The Washington Post, covering small colleges, a couple NCAA basketball tournaments, and on one glorious day, was yelled at by Tony Kornheiser. It was probably at The Post that he also learned to write in the third person.

These days he lives in Athens with his beloved and somewhat wimpy dog, Archie. Together they fight crime at night in northeast Georgia, except on nights there is no crime, in which case they sit at home, sip on white wine and watch reruns of "Mad Men."